“The Freedom to Teach: Confronting Complex Themes in Contested Spaces” is a non-partisan conference that seeks to bring together history and civics educators from a variety of different backgrounds (including but not limited to higher education, K-12 public education, libraries, museums, administrative, and college students) to share their perspectives on and experiences with teaching difficult topics. The event’s objective is to build bridges between these different constituencies, share best practices, outline common tasks, and develop solutions to teaching complicated themes that are based on our shared educational mission. Those common values are based on the values of a liberal arts education and the related pursuit of academic truth, whose mission transcends political boundaries.